The Mandalorian Season 3 Episodes 7 & 8 Review

Credit to: Disney and Lucasfilm

And that’s a wrap!

Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at episodes 7 and 8 of Star Wars: The Mandalorian season 3! I missed y’all! It has been a while, I definitely needed to hit the reset button on life for a bit, but we’re here, and so are you. That’s what matters. I hope you’ve all been having a good, relaxing few weeks while I’ve taken my break. Glad to have you back. Y’know, I figure that with all the time to let these episodes breathe, I can get a little spoilery, huh? Definitely got a couple of things to say about these two episodes, so I think it’s a good idea, if I do say so myself. Well, let’s do it then. Without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.

Chapter 23: The Spies

Pros

I was pretty pleased about this episode. First, It was really good to see Gideon front and center in the middle of the Imperial meeting in the beginning of the episode. The whole shadow council concept alone is pretty cool, and it makes sense for the Empire to have these gears turning behind the scenes, because really, did you ever expect the Empire to truly die off? With characters like Thrawn still thriving, that’s never happening. Gideon though, has made it very clear that he personally has no interest in Thrawn’s plan. It really does make sense for there to be this kind of power struggle within their ranks. The only back up plan for the Emperor’s absence is the Emperor himself (ugh). Beyond this, there’s nobody else to take control. Gideon sees himself as this figure, bringing in the new Imperial era with his dark troopers, and his beskar clad super commandos as we see later on. We even hear of Praetorian Guards, the red nobodies from the sequel trilogy. How fun. Almost forgot this was the pros section, let me chill. Anyway! Fast forwarding to later in the episode, I actually did really enjoy seeing the two separate Mandalorian clans mesh together. You see just how awkward it is, how tense thing are when two completely different worlds coexist with each other, when two ideologies clash, when two ways of life are suddenly being told to combine as one. It was expected of course, but the scale of this event happening in live action was actually pretty damn cool, I gotta say. Especially when the Mandalorians travel to Mandalore? Ugh. That whole scene was great. I loved how dark and gritty the world of Mandalore has become after, y’know, that night (Night of a Thousand Tears), and to see the Mandalorians finally come back to their home world after years of believing the air was toxic was really entertaining. This is something you’d expect to see in an animated series or something, but we got it all on live action. Pretty dope. I really enjoyed the massive kaiju type of creature we see killing off a couple of poor Mandos, but the highlight of the episode for me was definitely the introduction of those new, beskar-clad Imperial super commandos. They do kinda scream ‘sequel trilogy’ to me, but seeing them in action made that pill go down a lot easier. It did get a little harder once we finally see Mandalorian-inspired Praetorian Guards, because hot damn I hated that garbage fight scene we saw in The Last Jedi. It was bad, don’t want to hear it. While I hated to see our boy, the homie, Paz Vizsla sacrifice himself for the other Mandalorians to escape, it was a pretty badass scene. He went out the way a Mandalorian should always want to: in combat. Finally, the icing on the cake for this episode, for me personally, was Gideon in his shiny new Mandalorian armor. He was a mix between a Maul loving Death Watch Mando and an Imperial Dark Trooper, and MAN does it look good on him. Not a fan of the voice modulator, but that’s a tiny gripe. Other than that, this was great. I felt genuine worry when he and his troops surrounded Din Djarin as he tried to kill off as many as he could single-handedly, because he really did look like a genuine threat. Overall, I did enjoy quite a bit of this episode.

Cons

This was unfortunately quite the slow burn. Again. I’m not really sure why this season has such a glaring pacing issue, but it really does. I actually found myself saying, “Finally,” when things got to heating up towards the middle of this episode. I really do feel like so much time was wasted with a bunch of unnecessary scenes. It was like watching Dragon Ball Z, all over again. The first season did a great job at keeping the story together. We understood immediately that we have a bounty hunter who unexpectedly has feelings about the fate of his bounty, wants to maintain his traditions in his Mandalorian culture, all while dealing with the looming Imperial threat that has him in their sights. It was an interesting story. Even in the second season, while it does have an issue with trying a little too hard to please the fans of the original trilogy, it did still have a very strong plot that blessed us with some great scenes from some great characters, both new and old. It was another success. This season? Well, it’s not bad, but man I was over here thinking I was watching Din Djarin’s show, not Bo Katan and friends’. Do they deserve a show? Absolutely, and I’d be there day one, but maybe don’t steal the main character’s limelight they way Din stole it from Boba. I’m not sure why there’s been such a change in direction with not only the character of Mando, but the entire series it seems. One final thing that I actually didn’t enjoy at all, which is probably a little controversial, is the whole “IG-12” concept. I can’t stand it. It’s such a random thing to have here. Grogu is piloting IG-11 as his own personal Gundam, and it really wasn’t funny at all. Honestly, it was pretty cringy. I’m not sure why this is a thing, but it is. Really was the icing on the cake in terms of the things that I didn’t enjoy.

3 out of 5.

Chapter 24: The Return

Pros

Action. Action, action, action. One more time, action. There’s so much of it here. We see not only Din Djarin kick some ass, finally, but we see Bo-Katan and the rest of the tribe engaging with a horde of super commandos in the air, on the ground, using all kinds of flashy tricks and gadgets to take them out. It was really fun to watch. I loved that. I hate how much I compare these two shows, but it was a level of action that I’d expect from The Clone Wars, which is a really good thing. Now that we’re here with this final episode, we really get to see things kick up a notch. While I can’t stand the IG-12 nonsense, we see Grogu running to his dad to try and rescue him from his captors, but the for the most part, Din handles his business. I did enjoy to see that these two are very, very close (obviously), but we see Grogu completely risking his neck to be there to support his dad. It’s just so sweet. Even our funny little companion, R5 has a role to play in this episode, assisting Din as he makes his way through the Imperial base. That scene right there? Let’s talk about that for a sec. The scene where Din takes on multiple troopers at once, using their own weapons to take them out, and move on to the next ones? Ugh. Chef’s kiss. Like what? This is the Din we want to see! Let’s see him upgrade as a fighter, not just a father. He’s a Mandalorian. Let’s see his tricks. Let’s (give him a new Darksaber) have him kick ass with his gadgets, his hand to hand skills, and his environmental awareness! You’ve got this pretty fresh, new character that we want to see develop. Give us more of this. Let’s see him take on some serious threats, whether it’s super troops, giant monsters, or maybe one day have this guy go toe to toe with another Force-user? He’s a badass, treat him like one. Anyway! I loved that. I loved the fight between him and Gideon, I loved the fight with Gideon and Bo-Katan, and I loved the team up between Bo and Din against Gideon, where we see the base burst up in flames as Grogu protects the two while allowing Gideon to be turned to ash. If we’re gonna be getting more of the Din and Bo combo, let’s see them fight together like this more often, because that was really fun to watch. Beyond these two, we see the tribe absolutely killing it. Whether it’s in their ships or taking on troops one on one, these guys were taking back their home world with an absolute vengeance. Even the Armorer was in the air with her tools, smashing down Imperials. This was a really fun entry, and a really fun way to close this season. I’m 50/50 on the ending where Din and Grogu, well, Din Djarin and the newly named Din Grogu have settled down in a home on Nevarro, but I did find it to be a very sweet ending. I enjoyed this. Not bad at all.

Cons

Stop destroying things. Like, really, stop it. You guys destroyed the Razor Crest, now you want to destroy the Darksaber? For what? It's enough to randomly give Bo the saber with basically no thought put into it, but now you’ve destroyed it. Man, collectors must be PISSED. Want to know why I say that? I’m them. I’m one of those collectors. Like I’m starting to worry about whether or not I should buy Din’s new ship because I’m starting to expect for it to be blown up or crash or something. I’m glad that we know now that Din is returning to his old bounty hunting ways, but this new ship is nothing compared to his old ride, which has a carbon freezing chamber inside and a weapons locker. Come on now. Looks pretty, and it’s a real speedy ship, but… eh? Another thing. Gideon’s gone. We barely got to see him! I was really hoping we’d get some more content from him, but the guy got all burned up. They gave this guy the Two-Face from DC treatment. The Anakin on Mustafar treatment. The Scorpion in Netherrealm treatment. I can’t think of any other examples. But yeah, what’s that all about? We just got this guy back in this season, and poof, he’s gone. That’s honestly such a letdown. His character was so mysterious and interesting, and he’s the reason why we were able to get so many gem moments throughout the series. He’s so pivotal. I feel as though they had to kill him off to make way for Thrawn, rather than pursuing a storyline that could’ve had them competing. I don’t think this was the best way to handle the ending of the season. If it wasn’t for the action, I’d score this lower.

3.5 out of 5.

Final Thoughts

Well, that’s that! When these last two episodes dropped, I wasn’t too sure how to really react. I definitely did feel disappointment, I felt like my time was wasted a bit, and I really wanted more, not in a good way. But, on the other hand, I enjoyed what I enjoyed, if that makes any sense. We did get some good Mandalorian content in terms of seeing the way this new tribe functions in and out of combat, and we got some more good Din and Grogu stuff. Bo-Katan did her thing, as she stole the spotlight far too much, and the Armorer was even more badass somehow. Either way, I can’t say that I’m satisfied with this season, but I can at least say that I can accept it into the story of the Mando-verse. But what did you all think? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure you’re following us there to stay up to date with the latest and greatest entertainment news and reviews. But that’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den!

Season: 3 out of 5.